LEEDS CITY MAGAZINE AND WELCOME TO YORKSHIRE LOOK AT SOME OF THE PLACES YOU CAN CELEBRATE WOMEN OF YORKSHIRE THIS YEAR

CELEBRATING YORKSHIRE’S WOMEN

LEEDS CITY MAGAZINE AND WELCOME TO YORKSHIRE LOOK AT SOME OF THE PLACES YOU CAN CELEBRATE WOMEN OF YORKSHIRE THIS YEAR

Leeds City Magazine has teamed up with the guys at Welcome to Yorkshire to look at some places to celebrate women of Yorkshire this year. Here are some of their suggestions which have all the makings of a great day out.

Dame Judi Dench, Barbara Hepworth, Helen Sharman, Hannah Cockroft, the Brontë sisters – Yorkshire is the proud home to some of the world’s most celebrated women.

International Women’s Day being in March marks 100 years since women first got the vote – so it’s a fantastic time to embrace the role females have played in the county’s history.

At York’s Chocolate Story, a new exhibition called Times of Change: Women and Confectionery is made up of unique historical artefacts and fascinating testimonies which tell the stories of tenacious women who worked in the industry. Often overlooked in the history of chocolate, these people created some iconic innovations that can still be enjoyed across the planet.

Since the industry began in the 17th Century, women have played a major part in shaping confectionary, from Mary Tuke – who created a successful cocoa business against all adversity and paved the way for companies such as Rowntree’s – to Mary Ann Craven’s humbugs and French almonds.

Visitors to the exhibition will discover how workplace dynamics changed forever when the men were called to fight in both world wars, and how it wasn’t that long ago that marriage could act as a serious career-hindrance.

Throughout 2018, Abbey House Museum in Leeds will also be celebrating women in the workplace as it looks at the struggles and progress of women in achieving equality and recognition.

The exhibition features stories and objects from strong pioneering women from 1860 to the present day, and visitors can discover how everyday life has changed for women in the home, school and workplace.

The museum is also offering study days which will explore topics such as the role of nurses in World War One – from front line evacuation to convalescence in local country houses – suffragettes in Leeds and the campaigns they organised, and music created by female composers.

One of the major features of the exhibitions and study days is Leonora Cohen, a Leeds suffragette who earned the nickname of ‘The Tower Suffragette’ after throwing an iron bar at a case containing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London in 1913. She went on to be hugely celebrated, earning an OBE and serving as a magistrate in her lifetime.

Over at Leeds Industrial Museum, an exhibition called Queens of Industry will be running until September 2019 to reveal the untold stories of the working class ‘queens’ elected to represent some of Britain’s greatest industries, from coal to cotton.

And this year, the women’s race at the Tour de Yorkshire will extend to two days for the first time – so they can continue celebrating victories in the future!